Global Girls Book Club Launch
And a Review of Rental House by Weike Wang
Hello lovely readers!
Have you ever read a book whose characters felt so real that they lingered with you long after you finished reading? Are you thrilled by talking about stories and books with your girlfriends? Love discovering books from writers around the world?
If so, this book club is for you!
Last month I launched the Global Girls Book Club and I couldn’t be more excited! I’ve been wanting to start a book club for years now and I finally got to it.
So who are we? A group of smart, savvy, globally conscious women who meet virtually every other month to engage in rich, meaningful discussions about stories we love.
How does it work?
Our book club members span all over the world from Lisbon to Louisiana. I curate book choices from writing organizations I participate in, library book lists, and recommendations from fellow writers. Our members vote on their book pick each month and are always welcome to suggest books to choose from too.
If you would like to know about the stories we’re reading, but can’t attend our gatherings, you’re in the right place. Each month I’ll share a review of the book choice of the month right here after our club has met to discuss it.
Last month, we read and dissected Rental House by Weike Wang.
Here’s a little bit about the book as described by GoodReads:
“Keru and Nate are college sweethearts who marry despite their family differences: Keru’s strict, Chinese, immigrant parents demand perfection (“To use a dishwasher is to admit defeat,” says her father), while Nate’s rural, white, working-class family distrusts his intellectual ambitions and his “foreign” wife.
Some years into their marriage, the couple invites their families on vacation. At a Cape Cod beach house, and later at a luxury Catskills bungalow, Keru, Nate, and their giant sheepdog navigate visits from in-laws and unexpected guests, all while wondering if they have what it takes to answer the big questions: How do you cope when your spouse and your family of origin clash? How many people (and dogs) make a family? And when the pack starts to disintegrate, what can you do to shepherd everyone back together?”
I found Rental House to be an atmospheric and thought-provoking novel that lingers in the mind after reading. Wang’s ability to capture profound emotional truths with minimalistic prose is impressive. While the novel’s slow pace and ambiguous elements may not appeal to all readers (such as myself), those who appreciate quiet, introspective literary fiction will find it rewarding.
While I appreciated the cultural nuances and complexities of a cross-cultural marriage which Wang captured so well with her concise prose, I was a bit disappointed by the book’s end. I felt we weren’t brought through the evolution of the main characters, Keru and Nate.
As a reader I was left wondering if Keru and Nate had changed in any way by the book’s end. Nonetheless, the story’s ability to help readers re-examine what it means to exist as an outsider not only in your country of origin, but even within your own home, was effective. Wang’s observations of the tensions that often arise within families of mixed origins were cutting and evocative. '
Coming Up Next
For March’s book club, our members chose from a fantastic list of books from Black authors, in honor of Black history month in the U.S.
Next up on our reading list is, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, by Tia Williams. It’s a romance novel that finds “A free-spirited florist and an enigmatic musician sharing a soul mate connection told through the history, art, and the magic of Harlem.”
I’m in!
What books are you reading and raving about now? I’d love to hear from you, as always. And you can join our Global Girls Book Club here!
Happy reading,
Summer